Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/248

244 pale-yellow or luteous; the posterior tibiæ rather smooth above, the lateral hairs cinereous; abdomen approaching to globose. Slight varieties are formed by the coloured bands being sometimes of a lighter or a darker hue. This insect abounds in our fields and gardens, and is almost equally common throughout all Europe. It is distinguished above its congeners for strength and activity. It is one of the earliest insects that appear in the spring, and one of the latest to leave us in autumn. It forms its nest, as is well known, in holes in the ground, sometimes excavated laboriously by its own efforts, sometimes previously formed by other animals and taken possession of by the foundress of the colony. The females of this, as of all the other species, are largest in size, the males next, and the workers smallest. Early in spring, when the willows begin to bloom, the female may be seen traversing the gardens by sun-rise with her usual sonorous booming, and busied in collecting honey and pollen from the catkins. The workers do not appear till a somewhat later period, and the males not till autumn, when the thistles are in blossom, upon the flowers of which they are found in great numbers, and in still greater, if possible, upon seeding leeks and onions, where, on a single flower, may be seen half a dozen at the same moment. At this early period of the year, the female is a solitary being, and her flights are directed in search of a place suitable for a habitation. The females only, of all the former year's colony, have survived the winter,